Hunter College will establish a SCORE Institutional Development Program to improve the research environment and provide an enhanced ability of the faculty to conduct competitive biomedical and behavioral research. Aims are based on successful activities of previous SCORE funding and from surveying the needs of science faculty. Productivity in grant submissions and awards will be increased. The SCORE Office will provide a variety of initiatives to assist faculty to apply for and obtain research grants. Specific initiatives will focus on faculty at different levels of development including new, junior and senior faculty. All faculty, as well as SC1, SC2 and SC3 SCORE PIs, will be assisted to apply to appropriate SCORE or CUNY-wide, state, federal or foundation grants. Increases in both the number of grant applications and the success rate of applications are sought. Programs to enhance faculty communication skills will be initiated and include providing an editor to review manuscripts and sponsoring a yearly symposium for faculty to present research results. Improvements in grant writing skills will be supported by grant writing workshops by various outside groups. On-going help in grant writing and critiquing will be provided by senior Hunter Faculty who hold R01 grants. Increases in college- and CUNY-wide collaborations will be sought in order to become competitive for multi-disciplinary research or equipment grants from CUNY and/or federal agencies. As in previous SCORE grant, groups of faculty from different departments, but with common research interests, will be formed: Research Interest Groups (RIGs). Faculty will share and discuss results, invite outstanding speakers and participate in a yearly science symposium. The RIGs will be the site for establishing junior-senior faculty mentoring relationships for assistance in paper and grant writing. Further, the SCORE office will co-ordinate with other SCORE PDs and chairs to involve faculty at other CUNY colleges in order to apply for collaborative grants. Finally, SCORE will establish/upgrade on-line data-bases for monitoring faculty research productivity and tracking graduate student programs which are necessary for many grant applications. In summary, four specific aims/initiatives are presented to improve the research environment at Hunter College and to enhance the research productivity of its faculty. Each initiative has specific goals and measurable objectives, and an evaluation plan is provided. In addition, time-lines for institutionalization of the aims are provided.